


Mushroom High (A Super Mario Fanfiction)

by SinewaveSanctuary



Category: Super Mario Bros. (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-04 13:52:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 15,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18605845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinewaveSanctuary/pseuds/SinewaveSanctuary
Summary: I don't really know where this story will go. Mario and friends go to high school! Bully Bowser's got a plan, and the new kid Antasma is helping.. And then there's the matter of Dreambert, the daydreamer who just sits in the corner of the classroom. And the science teacher Mr. Fawful is planning something, for sure... And Mario is trying to get Peach to notice him. Oh, and there are rumours that Mushroom High is haunted...





	1. Characters

Note: I've had the idea for a while now but I don't actually have the story down so I'll just make it up as I go along. I've got a couple of characters down, so this first bit will be all about them.

 

Mario- A new kid at the school, he dreams of being a plumber as well as a hero. He really really likes Peach.

Luigi- Mario's bro. Luigi is somewhat shy and can be a bit of a scaredy-cat sometimes, but he is kind and can do some cool things when he tries. He admires his bro Mario.

Peach- The prettiest girl in the class- scratch that, the whole school. Every guy has a crush on her.

Daisy- Peach's BFF. She kinda likes Luigi. She is really cheerful and happy.

Bowser- Bowser is the school bully. He is in year 10 and he thinks he's tough, but Mario can stand up to him. He really likes Peach, and would go MAD if Mario got her.

Bowser Jr.- BJ is Bowser's younger bro. He is in Mario's class. Nobody is sure what BJ stands for, but he sure acts like his older bro, so everyone calls him Bowser Jr.

Wario- Wario steals things in school, and he's not the prettiest guy. Still, he does find a friend in Mario.

Yoshi- Yoshi will eat ANYTHING. That's all anyone knows about Yoshi. Yoshi becomes one of Mario's best friends.

Antasma-Antasma likes it dark. He tries to befriend Bowser. He wants to be one of the "cool" kids. He has a weird fascination with bats...

Britta- Britta is the strictest teacher at the school, although she can be nice sometimes. Britta is Mario's homegroup teacher.

Kuzzle- Kuzzle is the maths teacher and likes solving puzzles.

Kylie Koopa- Miss Koopa, who prefers to be called Kylie, is the receptionist and helper at the school.

Dreambert- Dreambert quickly makes an enemy of Antasma. His friends all disappeared long ago. Nobody really knows much about him.

Fawful- The creepy science teacher.

Midbus- The creepy lab assistant.

Starlow-A very happy girl, she loves the colour yellow and is good friends with Peach and Daisy.

Waluigi- One of the "cool" kids. He thinks he's cool, but he's really not.

Toadsworth-the principal of Mushroom High School.

Bedsmith-the guy who looks a bit like Dreambert. He is obsessed with making beds, for some strange reason. He lives near the sacred woods nearby.

Donkey Kong- He looks like an ape and sometimes acts like one too. He even brings a banana and a banana sandwich to school every day!

Diddy Kong-Diddy likes to play pranks on all his friends. He is the little brother of Donkey Kong.

The Zeekeeper- A bird that is the class pet. It is the only one of its kind.


	2. A New Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario arrives at Mushroom High for his first day of high school, meets his strict homeroom teacher Miss Britta, and gets his first look at his classmates.

Mario got to school late. His mum said going to a new school would be "a fresh, new start" for him, but he knew that starting his first day late would not help. The teachers hate the kids who arrive late first day forever, he thought. And it'll be just my luck that I'll get the strictest teacher of all...

"Settle down class! I know school can be exciting, but if you lot don't be quiet..." said the teacher. Mario sat at his desk in home group. He was at the front of the class. His desk was the closest desk to the teacher. Next to him was a fat kid in a yellow cap and shirt. At the next desk over was a pretty girl in a pink dress. She had blonde hair. Next to her was a girl with brown hair, and an orange dress. They were showing something to each other on their phones. Mario thought, wow, the girl in pink looks really cool. I'll bet she'll never want to be friends with me. Mario looked behind him. At the desk behind him sat an untidy, tough looking kid. His shirt had a scary face on it. He had bright orange hair. His fists were huge. He was gripping his pencil tightly. It looked as though it was on the verge of snapping. One look at him and Mario thought, don't mess with that kid. Who knows what might happen?

 

"Class! I am Miss Britta, and I shall be addressed as such!" called the strict teacher. She was in a pink and white shirt, with pink pants. Her head looked kind of square. She was wearing a hard, pink hat. She had brown hair.

"Yes, Miss Britta," chorused the class.

"Now, we all know the school rules, I hope! No shouting, no running about inside, no distracting people, no PHONES IN CLASS, miss Peach!" said Miss Britta, snatching away Peach's phone. Peach was the pretty girl in pink that Mario had been looking at before. Miss Britta continued with a long, boring list of school rules. Mario looked around the room. His brother, Luigi, was sitting behind the tough kid, with another boy who was wearing green and white. There were lots of kids in the class. There was a girl in yellow with a big star-shaped hairclip in her blonde hair. Her skin seemed to shine. In the corner sat a boy with red hair and fancy looking clothes. His hair looked like it had been shaped into a pillow shape. The boy just seemed to stare out the window. Finally the bell rang. Mario looked at his timetable. He had maths first. Mario was not looking  forward to it at all.


	3. Boo!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A kooky old maths teacher and a spooky incident-and this is only the Mario Bros' first class of the year!

Mario went to his locker to fetch his things for maths. He had never been all that good at maths. Addition and subtraction, he could do. He kew most of his tables, and could do simple division. But that was about it. He didn't get all tha x and y nonsense, or what a quadrilateral was, or what the difference was between an equilateral triangle and a scalene triangle. His bro Luigi was quite good at maths. Mario just hoped Britta wouldn't be the maths teacher.

 

Mario got to class on time, which was a start. He sat next to the same boy he had been sitting with before, the one in the yellow shirt, cap and purple pants. Mario waited for Miss Britta to come storming into the classroom, carrying a bunch of huge textbooks. But it wasn't Britta who came in. It was an old man. His skin had a blue tinge. He had a hunched back. He was in an old looking brown suit. He had white hair and a white beard too.

 

"Erm... hello, class. I presume I am in the...er, what was it again? Oh yes, I am supposed to be teaching the 1U- P-corridor class. I think the subject is maths. I am in the P corridor, in the classroom 1U, aren't I?" said the teacher absentmindedly.

"Er, yes sir," replied pretty Peach.

"Ah. Do excuse me, 1U-P. I do tend to get forgetful at my old age. Now, I am Mr. Kuzzle, and I will be teaching you maths."

"You already said that, gramps," replied the scary looking kid behind Mario.

Mr. Kuzzle seemed to ignore him. "Now, I presume the first thing to to would to call the role, yes?"

He didn't wait for an answer. "Right. Erm... Let's see... Mario?"

"Here."

"Luigi?"

"Here."

Kuzzle called everyone else. Britta had forgotten to call the role. When the name "BJ" had been called, the scary kid said, "It's Bowser Jr, and don't you forget it!"

Kuzzle continued to call the names. Mario tried his best to remember them. After that, Mr. Kuzzle announced that the class was going to do a puzzle. He handed out some jigsaw puzzles. Bowser Jr said, "This ain't maths! Get your brain checked, gramps." Mr. Kuzzle said that he was to stand outside the classroom, and that "in my day, I would've whacked you one... if I had the strength... I used to be great... Had what you'd call a fan club.... Those were the days..." He went off on a bit of a tangent with stories about parties he had in his house, and how "someone" had smashed all his stuff up and that had been the end of it. Then Starlow (?) walked up to Mr. Kuzzle, her feet looking like they were just skimming the ground. She said, "Um, aren't you supposed to be teaching us maths?"

Kuzzle said, "Oh yes. I do tend to ramble on... Bad habit of mine. I do have some stories to tell..." Then he looked at Starlow and said, "Oh. Some other time. Now who wants to enjoy a jigsaw puzzle? I love 'em. My friends and I used to have whole parties of puzzles! They were great! All those puzzle lovers, all enjoying the delights of the puzzle..."

"Haarrggghh! Let's get to it!" yelled Wario, the fat boy Mario was sitting next to. Ugh, thought Mario. What has that guy been eating? His breath stank! Finally, Mr. Kuzzle told them that they could start their jigsaw puzzles. Mario and Wario took a look at the puzzle, but couldn't really work out what it was supposed to be. "What is this thing s'posed to be???" asked Wario, looking somewhat annoyed.

"Oh, that one's a real doozy. 'T's supposed to be  a cushion. When my stuff was smashed... it all turned into puzzles! Found that yesterday and knew it was one of 'em. Happy puzzling!"

"Gah! How're we s'posed to know what the thing looks like?" asked Wario, banging his hands down on the desk and making it shake. Mario looked at Wario, and decided to try it. Wario inturrupted at several points, saying, "Gah! It's impossible!" and "This bit must go with another puzzle!" and "AAAAAARRRGGHH!" It was frustrating him. But he did help sometimes, and together they finally slipped the last piece in.The puzzle shined as it clicked into place. There was a bright flash, and sitting on the desk was an actual cushion. The same one that they'd been doing a puzzle of. Kuzzle looked overjoyed. "Haha! I knew you could do it! Thanks, you two! A+ for both of you!" He smiled at Mario and Wario. "Wow, an A+! Never gotten one of them in maths before!" said Wario. "Thanks, buddy."

 

Luigi and his friend, the kid in the green and white shirt, were next to finish. Kuzzle had said that they could do whatever they wanted. Mario's phone beeped. It was a Mush Message, from Luigi. MushMessage was a sort of chatroom, just so you don't get confused.

 

TheGreenMachine: Yo, bro! Know what Yosh just told me?

PipeMaster: What did Josh just tell you, bro?

TheGreenMachine: No, not Josh, Yosh. As in, my pal Yoshi. He said... there are ghosts running around... in the old bit of the library!

PipeMaster: Ghosts? Don't know about that. Perhaps your pal's been watching too much Betty Boo.

TheGreenMachine: Betty Boo? I didn't know there was a show like that. But he said that ther-

Luigi started typing the message, when a spherical white ghost with a huge pink tongue and pointy teeth appeared in front of him. "Boo! Boo! BOOOOO!!" It said, before slowly fading into nothing. Luigi yelped. He pointed at where the ghost had been, but there was nothing there, and it appeared that nobody elso had seen it. "Gaaahhh! Mamma Miaaaa!" he screamed across the room. Mario ran over to Luigi's desk to comfort his bro. Luigi was shaking and gripping his green cap tightly. What had he just seen? Suddenly the bell rang for the next class. Luigi jumped. Mario said, "It's just the bell, bro. Don't worry. Must be seeing things."

 

Luigi nodded his head... But he was sure what he'd seen. Yoshi had been right.


	4. Prince Dreambert of the Pi'illo Kingdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We take a step back from the Mario Bros and observe one of Mario's classmates, a strange, quiet boy by the name of Dreambert.

While all this madness with the ghosts and such was going on, Dreambert was just sitting at his desk, doing his puzzle. Nobody sat with him. There had been an odd number of people in the class, and two people to a desk, and he was the one who had to sit on his own. He didn't want to become famous at school. That DJ character seemed a bit dodgy. Who knows what he might do if I make him upset, or he gets jealous of me, or something, he thought, staring at the lovely green trees out the window. He was still sad about what happened to his friends all that time ago.

He used to be the prince of a wonderful kingdom. A kingdom of dreams. Literally. The Pi'illos, the people of the Pi'illo Kingdom, could enter other people's dreams. The Pi'illos had been given this ability for one reason: To protect the Dream Stone while stopping the Dark Stone from falling into the hands of the unworthy. But one terrible day, the bat king, who went by the name of Antasma, snatched the Dark stone and smashed it into hundreds of pieces, petrifying the Pi'illos. He hadn't been petrified; being the prince of the Pi'illo Kingdom, he was quite powerful, but he was trapped inside the dream world until the birth of the one who would help the Pi'illos. That was the ancient prophecy he had heard when he was trapped, anyway.

Prince Dreambert shuffled the pieces of his puzzle around on the desk. He didn't want to do the puzzle, or Bowser Jr. might get angry. The prince wasn't scared, he just didn't want to get on anyone's bad side. Finally, the maths class ended. Time for English class. Dreambert walked quietly away from his desk. He snuck back to his little locker in the corridor. Apparently, the last person to use that locker had disappeared mysteriously and nobody had bothered to use it since. It was a bit broken. There was a huge dent in the door, because everyone took their anger out on the tiny, "haunted" locker. There was even an old schoolbook still in the locker. Dreambert was fascinated by this. He had a feeling that the he had seen that sort of ancient writing before, but his memory had faded from spending so much time trapped in a strand of a dream all those years.

In English class, the teacher was Britta. Straight away she yelled at Dreambert for daydreaming. She told them to write an essay about their life story. So Dreambert wrote.

My name is Dreambert Pi'illo. I don't remember much of my life due to the fact that I was trapped in the dream world for quite some time. I used to be the prince of a kingdom called the Pi'illo Kingdom, but now the kingdom is in ruins. I don't know how long I've been trapped, maybe about ten years? My memory isn't what it was. All I can remember is being the prince of the kingdom when the bat king Antasma stole the Dark Stone which we Pi'illos were protecting. He wanted to make a wish on it. But just as we were about to defeat Antasma... he smashed the Dark Stone, and petrified the Pi'illos, my people. Then I was trapped in a dream. I heard a prophecy that I would wake when the one who would save the Pi'illos was born, but I don't know who it was, or even how long ago I was released. I woke up to a new place, full of foreign people. No Pi'illos could be seen anywhere. I snuck away on a boat, determined to find out what had happened, but I haven't found out. That is all I really remember.

Dreambert handed up the essay. It wasn't as long as some of the others.  He had wanted to please Miss Britta, so he had written every last detail he could remember, and he had written it in his best handwriting, but when he handed up, Britta said, "What is this RUBBISH? I asked for an ESSAY not a STORY. This is impossible! And the handwriting is ATROCIOUS! Detention for a WEEK! And 100 lines, I will not write silly made up nonsense! Quick quick, get a move on!"

Dreambert's day dragged on. He was miserable all day, until when he  was walking home from school...


	5. A Run-In With Bowser

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario makes both friends and enemies during recess when he bumps into big bad bully Bowser.

After the maths class, Mario and Luigi wallked to their lockers to get their things for the English class. Luckily, not much happened in that lesson, although Dreambert, the daydreamer in the corner, recieved a good telling off from Britta.At recess though, Mario and Luigi were getting their recess out of their lockers when suddenly they heard a deep, scary voice saying, "Hey, you maggots! You been sayin' dodgy things 'bout Junior, eh? Ya gonna regret it for the rest of your lives!" Mario and Luigi slowly turned round to see a very ugly boy staring at them, giving them a very evil stare. He had bright orange hair with green streaks in it. He had orange eyebrows too. His head was huge, and when he talked you could see a few big, pointy teeth in his huge mouth. This boy looked a  bit like Bowser Jr. Only scarier.... He looked like he could breathe fire at any moment.

"Name's Bowser, and don't you forget it!" said the scary boy. "And don't even THINK you can get your mitts on Peach!" he said, slamming Mario's locker closed with a clang. Mario wasn't sure what to do. He wanted to run for it but his legs felt like they were glued to the floor. Luigi dashed across the corridor and ran straight into Britta, who gave him a good telling off. Bowser laughed at this. He then snatched Mario's lunch bag and ran off, with Bowser Jr running after him. 

 

Mario felt somewhat alone. He only had his bro Luigi, and nobody else, and sometimes Mario felt like talking to someone else. He didn't really know anyone apart from that Wario kid he'd been sitting next to in his classes.

"Gah, that Bowser guy's a nasty piece o' work! No worries, you can have some of my lunch!" It was Wario, standing next to him. He held out his lunch which smelt really bad. "Uh... no thanks," replied Mario, backing away from the lunchbox.

"Okay, more for me!" chuckled Wario. Mario decided to sit by the steps near the canteen. Wario went with him. It seemed he'd been having a hard time making friends too. At least Luigi had become friends with that Yoshi kid.  Luigi and Yoshi soon joined Mario and Wario by the steps. Luigi had to write lines and pick up papers at lunchtime for running in the corridor, but he had to do both at lunch so he wouldn't have recess off. The four started to talk about their first classes, about strict Miss Britta, about Peach and her friend Daisy (Mario blushed when they got onto that topic) about Bowser, and soon the subject got onto the mysterious ghost sighting Luigi had had in maths. Mario wanted to believe in his bro but he had to see the ghost for himself before he would.

"Well," said Yoshi. "If you wanna see ghosts, we'll head up to the library. Apparently it's packed with them."


	6. The Bald Green Lab Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very strange science class, a creepy science teacher, and a somewhat unorthodox experiment.

After recess Mario, Wario, Luigi and Yoshi had science. They went to their lockers to get their stuff. Then they walked down the corridor to go to the class but they had a small problem. "Where's the science lab?" asked Luigi.

"Gah! This school's like a maze," said Wario.

"Guys? Where is the lab? We gotta get to science pronto," said Luigi.

Mario looked at his feet. He didn't know where the lab was either.

"Let's ask those girls over there," said Yoshi. He had seen Peach, Daisy and Starlow at their lockers. Mario and Luigi walked up to them. They blushed. "Um.. excuse me," said Mario softly. "Do you know where the science lab is?" The girls continued to take their things out their lockers. Mario tried again. "Excuse me, do you know where the science lab is?" The girls turned around.

"Hello yello!" said Starlow cheerfully. 

"Are you lost?" asked Daisy.

"Yes," said Luigi. "We need to get to the science lab but we don't know where it is."

"I don't know either," said Peach. "I was never very good with maps."

"Oh, well why didn't you say so! Come on! I'll show you where it is," said Starlow, walking away with her books in her arms. Meanwhile, Peach was struggling with all her books and pencil case, so Mario offered to carry her pencil case so she could use both hands for the books. He was blushing as he walked down the corridor with Peach and her friends.

 

They got to the science lab. the door was open but the teacher wasn't there. The lab assistant was, however. He was in a pink suit and his face looked like that of a pig. He was somewhat plump as well. He told the group to come into the lab. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Wario sat at the front bench. Peach, Daisy and Starlow sat behind them.

Soon Mario heard the other students come in. BJ sat next to Peach. Peach turned away whispering to Daisy, 'Ugh, his breath stinks!" Mario couldn't help laughing at this. BJ glared at Mario, although Mario couldn't tell because he was looking at the doorway, or rather, the strange person who was coming through the doorway. He was bald and wearing weird, swirly glasses. His skin had a green tinge to it. He had a red lab coat on too. Mario thought, what a weird looking guy.

 

"Hello, class! They call me Mr Fawful! I shall be taking you for science class, yes? Midbus! Prepare the experiment!" screeched the weird guy. The lab assistant dashed off and came back a minute later with a bunch of stuff. There was some weird looking liquid in a bottle, some parts of who-knows-what,  and a bunch of other strange looking stuff. Mario whispered to Wario, "I wonder what we're doing?"

 

"Now today, class, you will be using this Dark Fluid to power up something. You put this on this platform, and the beaker on that one..." said Fawful, demonstrating what they were going to do. "Then you connect the two with this... and you flick that switch... And then you wait until that glows with a dark aura..."

"What a weird experiment," whispered Daisy to Starlow. Luigi said,

"It doesn't look very safe... What if something goes wrong?"

"Why, it is perfectly safe!" exclaimed Fawful. "What can go wrong with this?"

"Er... I can think of lots of things that could go wrong..." said Luigi worriedly.

 

Ten minutes later the students were standing at lab benches trying to get the black star shaped object to glow darkly (if that makes sense). They weren't having much luck until Peach squealed, "Yes! I did it! It's glowing!"

"Ah, good job, Peach," said Fawful with an evil glint in his eye.

Suddenly Starlow said, "Um sir? Mine is glowing white. Is that supposed to happen?"

"....No...no, it's not. Er... just keep trying," replied Fawful. He had a strange look on his face.

"Curses," he said to himself. "She carries the blood of the Star Sprites! If she works it out... my plan's ruined!"

Nobody else could get their star to glow black. It was strange how they all did what Peach had done but they didn't get the result. Mario was thinking about this. "There's something off about that guy," he said to Luigi. Luigi nodded.

As they walked out of the science room to go to lunch, Mario thought he heard the science teacher mutter, "Interesting... very interesting... I must get my hands on... Peach..."


	7. Boo to You Too!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario and friends brace the darkest corner of the library, with their investigation producing frightfully fruitful results!

Mario, Luigi, Wario and Yoshi had just had science, and were walking to their lockers to get their lunch. Luigi remembered he had to write lines at lunch so he said bye to his friends and went off to their homegroup classroom, 1U-P.  Yoshi then reminded the others about what had happened in Maths, with the ghosts, and they agreed to search the "haunted" library for clues. Even though he hadn't seen the ghost himself, Mario believed his bro and wanted to help. After all, it wasn't the first time Luigi had had a problem with ghosts.

The library was dark when the group got there. Some of the lights were broken. Mario, Wario and Yoshi cautiously walked into the library.The library was quiet. There was hardly anyone there. A few people were reading books or sitting at tables whispering amongst themselves, but nobody dared to talk loudly.

The library was one of the oldest parts of the school. Even the stuff in it was old. Most of the books were torn, worn out or had pages missing. The chairs creaked when you sat in them, and all the tables were wobbly. Even the computers were old and slow. Koopa Krag, the old librarian, was the youngest thing in the library, or so eveyone said. He looked bored as he stood at the counter, bent over a book. Hardly anyone ever went to the library to  borrow books. Most people just put them back. There were a few new additions here and there, like the book detector, becuase some classes came here to study, but that was mostly all the library was used for. It didn't surprise Mario that there were rumours that it was haunted.

Yoshi gulped. "Are you sure this is such a good idea? I mean, what if Luigi was right...?" he said, trembling. Yoshi didn't know if he was shaking because of the cold (there was no heater in the library and it was a cold, winter's day) or because he was scared. Maybe it was both. All he knew was, he would rather be outside or at the canteen or even in detention with Luigi than in here.

"I'm sure it will be fine," said Mario, although he wasn't totally sure. He didn't scare easily, but the dim and eerie look of the library, the fact that hardly anyone was there, not to mention the incident in that morning's maths class, were starting to make him a tad jumpy. The three boys walked through the creaky chairs and wobbly tables to the ancient bookshelves. They were creaky like the chairs. The boys decided to stay together. After all, Luigi had seemed genuinely frightened in Maths that morning. Who knows what might be lurking in a place as old as this?

In the darkest corner of the library, the one that was farthest from the door, there was an old closet for the janitor's things. (Don't ask why it was in the library, it just was) Mario thought, If this place is cleaned often, how come it's always so mesy? He noticed that the closet had clearly not been touched in a long time. It was covered in dust and cobwebs. All of a sudden, a scuttlebug dropped from the ceiling. everyone yelped. It wasn't going to hurt them though; it was only a baby one that had been startled by the intrusion of its home. It scuttled back up to where it lived in the ceiling. Mario, Wario and Yoshi sighed in relief.

Unfortunately, that was not the only scare they had. There was a long, slow creeeeaaakkkk... as the door to the janitor's closet started to open slowly... "Wwwwooooooooooo..." said a voice from the closet... "Uh, maybe that was just the wind?" said Mario.

"Jusssssst the winnnnd, yooooouuu saaaay?" said the strange voice from the closet. The door creaked open more. Mario and the others could see a faint figure in the closet. It was that of a person. Next to it were two spherical figures.... Mario thought, Luigi was right! More of those round ghosts! "Run!" he called to the others. They started running through the chairs and tables. Wario was a slow runner, and he kept tripping on the chairs too. Koopa Krag was so absorbed in his book, he didn't notice. That is, until an unseen hand snatched the book from him. He looked up but he didn't see the book.

Mario and company were almost out of the woods. They were just passing through the book detector when.... BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! There were loud beeps coming from where they'd come. They must have come from the book detector! But nobody had taken any books out... Koopa Krag was walking across the library and said, "Hey, I was reading that book! You can't just take it! If you want to borrow it, ask me and head to the counter!" It was then that Yoshi noticed that there was a book sticking out of his jumper. It was the one that Koopa Krag had been reading earlier! How on earth had it gotten there? Mario thought, there is definitely something going on in Mushroom High....


	8. Zzzzzzz...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> History class proves too dull for a certain green-clad brother, though something tells me he'll regret falling asleep during THIS particular lecture...

RRRIIINNNGGG! The bell went for the end of lunch. Mario checked his timetable, which had gotten crushed in his bag. His last lesson was HIstory. He went back to his locker and got his book, then went to room 1U-P for his history class. The teacher was already there. He was an old looking man who had written his name, Professor E.Gadd, on the whiteboard.

Mario wasn't really interested in history, and so he found himself daydreaming quite a bit. "So Mario, can you tell me the name of the last prince of the Pi'illo Kingdom?" the teacher's voice cut into Mario's thoughts.

"Ummm...It was....err...." Everyone except Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Peach, Daisy and Starlow laughed. Mario heard BJ say, "what a dork," to the person next to him.

"Mario, have you been paying attention to what I've been saying?" asked the teacher.

"No, sir," said Mario, looking down at his desk. 

The teacher frowned then saw that someone had their hand up. "Yes...er, what was your name, you in the corner?" he said. Mario followed Professor E. Gadd's gaze to the kid in the corner who had gotten yelled at by Britta in English that morning.  

"It's Dreambert, sir," said the kid. He had peach coloured poofy hair that was in a kind of pillow shape. He was wearing fancy clothes too. "The prince's name was Dreambert. But he was lost when Antasma smashed the Dark Stone and all the Pi'illos turned to stone."

"Very good," said E. Gadd. Mario was surprised that Dreambert had paid attention instead of looking out the window and daydreaming like he had all morning-wait, what? The prince's name was Dreambert, and Mario had heard that the pillow-hair kid's name was Dreambert? That had to be a coincidence, thought Mario.

Professor E. Gadd started droning on and on about something or other (something about stones and bats?) and soon Mario felt like he was already asleep. He looked at his brother. It was already too late for him; he was snoring away, his head resting on his rather thick history textbook. Mario poked his brother. Luigi's hand moved and lightly batted at Mario's hand. Mario poked him again but this time there was no reaction; Luigi was in dreamland and he didn't want to wake up. Probably dreaming about pasta again, Mario thought.

In the corner by the window, Dreambert was feeling sad. They were talking and learning about HIM and his old kingdom. But he could not remember much about the Pi'illos other than the fact that they had all been lost after the bat king Antasma smashed the Dark Stone. He looked at one of the other kids in the class, a kid in green and blue clothes and a green cap. He was sound asleep on his textbook. The volume in question was called "History of the Pi'illo Kingdom." Dreambert could see something sparkling above the kid's head (he thought the kid was called Luigi?). Dreambert looked closer...yes, there it was. A white sparkle. The sparkle grew bigger. Then Dreambert saw something that made him tremble with shock and fear. A purple and black spot. As he watched, the spot grew bigger, and then turned into a puff of sinister-looking purple smoke. It seemed to emanate from the sparkle.

Mario looked at Luigi. He was clearly in a deeper sleep now. And now that he was looking closely...there was some kind of mist emanating from a point above Luigi's head.

Luigi woke inside some kind of cave. The only light came from purple crystals embedded in the rock that made up the cave. Cautiously, Luigi stood and explored the place. Luigi found a corridor in the cave and walked down it. He saw some kind of...bat. But it was unlike any bat he had ever seen. Its eyes glowed yellow in the dark cave, and it seemed to be muttering to itself. Luigi made out a couple of sentences: "Yeeessss....zat Dark Stone vill be MINE! The Pi'illos will meet zeir doom! And I, Antasma, shall rule ze vorld!" Then all went dark...


	9. The Second Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Class 1U-P is abuzz with speculation about the plethora of strange goings-on during their first day. Then it's back to the lab for some more suspiciously sinister science...

Everyone who was in Miss Britta's home group agreed that the first day of the school year at Mushroom High had been pretty weird. Britta yelling at Dreambert's essay, Kuzzle making the class do puzzles in maths and rambling about all his smashed stuff turning into puzzles, the seriously creepy science experiments and creepy science teacher, the noises coming from the library, and the fact that some students had seen some sort of mist above Luigi's head during History... Little did class 1-UP know that the whole year was going to be just as weird, if not weirder.

Mario and Luigi were talking on the bus. "And then," Luigi said, concluding the summary of his dream, "the bat guy said something about taking over the world." 

"Probably just a nightmare," said Mario. Luigi wasn't sure though. The fact that there was a ghost in the maths class and the library didn't help him settle down either.

Meanwhile, a few rows down from Mario and Luigi, Peach and Daisy were talking about Fawful's science class. "Nobody else got the star to go dark, and Fawful seemed kind of worried when Starlow's star glowed, as if that had never happened before," Peach said, explaining the results of the experiment. 

"He didn't even tell us what the point of the experiment was!" Daisy said. "What did making stars turn black have to do with science anyway?"

"I don't know Daisy, but I've got a bad feeling about it, and it has nothing to do with failing," Peach said. 

The first class of the day was science, with Fawful again. Almost everyone commented on how messy the lab was, as if Fawful had been in there all night, possibly trying to work out why Starlow's star glowed brightly. Fawful told the class that everyone was going to copy what he had written on the board into their books and then answer the questions. Everyone except Peach and Starlow, that is. He showed them to a lab bench at the back of the room, in the darkest corner. 

"Now," Fawful said to the girls, "I want you two to redo yesterday's experiment. Do exactly what you did yesterday, is that clear?"

The two friends glanced at each other before replying, "Yes, Mr. Fawful." The creepy teacher loomed over them as they conducted the experiment. They hooked their stars up to the equipment, lowered the domes over them, turned the dial to full power on the boxes attached to the star-stands, and sent a jolt of energy through them with another strange contraption. Then they waited.

While everyone else was copying notes from the whiteboard and answering questions, Mario was listening to the sounds coming from the darkest corner of the classroom (Which happened to be the farthest corner from the door). He turned his head and saw Peach and Starlow standing at a lab bench, with Fawful watching them like a hawk. Mario heard the strange noises of yesterday's experiment all over again:

Ka-chik!

Vvvvv.

Mmmmmmmmmmzzzzzzz....

ZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

...

...

...

Oooooooohhhhh...

Ka-ZZZTTTT!

Peach's star made a horrible noise as it began to glow darkly. It also began to grow. When it had started getting bigger the day before, Peach had turned the equipment off immediately. She moved her hand to the switch but Fawful stopped her. Peach stood still, watching the star get bigger and bigger. If it doesn't stop now, it will when it touches the dome, Peach thought, as the star had almost filled the glass dome. Thirty seconds later it was touching the dome. Ten seconds after the star touched the glass, Peach heard a cracking sound, and saw that the dome was cracked where the points of the star touched it. The glass dome would not hold much longer.

While all this has been happening, Starlow had been trying to work out why her star was glowing yellow instead of black.She had done everything Fawful had told her to do. Yesterday Peach and Starlow had shared a lab bench so they did their experiments together, doing all the steps of the practical at the same time. Her star should've glowed black, but it didn't. Starlow watched as her star grew brighter and brighter. Soon it looked almost...shiny. Then it began to grow. Like Peach's star, hers did not stop growing when it touched the dome. There was a cracking sound, as Starlow's dome cracked. Ten seconds later, there was a sickening shattering sound, as both domes shattered in unison.


	10. The Evil that Science Created

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things take a terrifying turn as Peach and Starlow are confronted by the truth of what they've created.

The whole class turned in their seats as they heard a smashing noise, like a hammer breaking a window, from the darkest corner of the science lab. Peach screamed. Starlow jumped back from the bench, knocking over a beaker that had been left out. Luckily it was empty, as it smashed on the hard floor. Fawful didn't seem to notice as he stared at the stars that had broken through the domes. The two of them were touching each other. The black one suddenly started to turn yellow. At first it was only a tinge, but then it began to get brighter. Fawful touched the yellow star, trying to grab it. "Ah! What is this?!" He yelled, jumping back as if he'd gotten an electric shock.

Mario jumped out of his chair and ran over to the corner where all the action was happening. "Peach! Are you alright?" He asked anxiously. Peach didn't answer. The black star was trying to pull away from the yellow one. With a shower of sparks, it suddenly broke free and floated towards Peach. When it reached her it attached itself to her chest. It stuck to the front of her dress. Peach bent forward, groaning. "N-N-No...No!" She spluttered.

Peach knew she had to fight it. This...thing was clearly bad news. It became harder to breathe as she tried harder to fight the star that had clamped itself onto her. She tried to yell "Help!" but nothing came out. Mario tried to pull the star from her but it was no use; it was not going to let go. "Your power...give it to me!" Peach heard a voice in her mind. It was a low, rasping voice that seemed to drip evil from every syllable.   
"N-N-No...No!" She managed to splutter, just before she felt the last of her energy seep out of her. Out of her and into this horrible entity that was stuck to her. "No...I can't let you-" she thought. But before she could finish her message to the star, she felt her legs give out. All went black.

"Peach!!!" Mario yelled as the girl collapsed. He just managed to grab her before she hit the ground.   
"Mr Fawful, do something!" Daisy yelled, running over to her friend.   
"I am sure she will wake up in a minute. No drama," said Fawful. He didn't seem to care about Peach. He was more interested in what the black star was doing. It seemed to pulse. Mario saw it and felt Peach's neck, looking for a pulse. "No way," he said. The star's pulsing was in sync with Peach's heart. He knew it was feeding off her somehow. He had to stop it; nobody else was going to. Luigi was shaking in his seat (Mario couldn't really blame him), Daisy was helping Mario hold Peach's limp body, Starlow was clearing away the apparatus from the experiment, BJ was giving somebody a noogie, Dreambert was daydreaming, Yoshi was eating, Wario was biting his pencil, everyone who cared about what was going on was staring, and everyone who didn't care was just generally mucking about.

Mario tried pulling at the star but it would not budge. Is there anything that can weaken it? He thought. Wait! The yellow star! He turned to where it had been before. He saw that it had shrunk since it had broken through the dome. Perhaps its "fight" with the black star had weakened it. Still, the black star had gone a little lighter when it touched the yellow one. It was Mario's only idea, so he grabbed the yellow star. 

Just as Mario was about to push the yellow star onto Peach, her eyes moved. Her mouth twitched. Mario backed up a little and sighed with relief. Unfortunately, his relief was short-lived. Peach rose, but she had a dark aura about her. Her movements were slow, almost zombie like. Her arms dangled by her side as she got to her feet. The black star was still pulsing. It was also growing. "You are doomed," said "Peach". Her voice was tainted by a sort of low rasp. "All of you. Doomed."  
"P-Peach!" Daisy yelled. "Snap out of it! Wake up already!"  
Peach did not wake up. She walked across the room, still acting like a zombie. That was when the door burst open and none other than Principal Toadsworth himself entered the room and said, "What in the name of the Star Spirits is going on in here?" 

The class turned their heads in acknowledgement but then continued to watch the spectacle that was unfolding. Toadsworth walked over to the corner.  
"Watch out sir!" Starlow piped up. "Peach isn't herself at the moment."  
"I can see that, young Starlow. What happened?" Starlow recounted the events of the two science lessons with Fawful. Toadsworth listened, nodding and shaking his head occasionally. When Toadsworth had an idea of what was going on, he said to Starlow, "You are going to have to grab the Dark Star, for that is what it is called, and pull it off Peach."  
"Me? But Mario can't get it off; what hope have I got?" Starlow answered in shock.  
"You carry the blood of the Star Sprites, the ancient protectors of the land! Your power is stronger than that of the Dark Star."  
Starlow sort of understood it, so she nodded and turned to the zombie Peach. Peach was slowly walking about the room, muttering something about ultimate power. Fawful was gazing at her with an expression of glee on his face. It's now or never, thought Starlow, advancing towards Peach. Peach didn't seem to notice anything around her; she had knocked over all kinds of science equipment on her tour of the lab. Starlow reached out to grab the Dark Star. Her fingertips tingled as they touched the smooth surface of the star. She grasped the Star in her hands, and began to pull. Then she felt soft, cold hands around her neck. "Peach" was strangling her! Both of them fought harder and harder. Starlow's vision blurred. She felt like she was about to collapse, but she had almost gotten the Star off of Peach! Suddenly, there was a flash as the Star tore free of Peach, and then the two girls collapsed.


	11. Fear and Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chaos reigns supreme in the aftermath of Peach's possession by the Dark Star, both inside the lab and in the hallways as the frightened Luigi makes a half-crazed dash to the sick room.

There was a loud thump as the bodies of Starlow and the zombified Peach fell to the floor. Peach's arms were still outstretched from when she had strangled Starlow. "Someone! Get Toadley in here!" Principal Toadsworth yelled at the members of the class who were somehow still sitting at their benches. Luigi, who had been sitting there in a state of shock the entire time, suddenly got to his feet, said, "On it!" and ran out of the room (glad of an excuse to get out of the lab). Daisy and Mario went to attend to the two unconscious girls. Mario couldn't help blushing a little as he felt Peach's neck for a pulse. He almost cried in relief when he found it. He looked up to see a relieved expression on Daisy's face; she had been checking Starlow. Hurry up, Luigi, Mario thought to himself, and silently prayed to the Star Sprites that Peach (and Starlow, of course) would wake up.

Luigi tore down the corridor as fast as he could. He was half crying from fear and shock at what had been happening. He tried to focus on getting to the sick room, where Doctor Toadley would be, but he was so shocked and scared that half the time he ended up going down random corridors. Since he was new to the school, he didn't know exactly where the sick room was, but he had a rough idea of the part of the school it was in. He almost crashed into Miss Britta, who yelled after him, "Hey punk! Whattaya doin', runnin' through the school like a maniac?!"   
Luigi mumbled "s-sorry" and kept running.   
Unfortunately, Luigi had gotten so lost by that point that he was practically as far from the sick room as you could possibly get in Mushroom High.

Meanwhile, in the science lab, Wario had finally decided that he'd better do something (he'd look like a jerk if he didn't, he thought after glancing at BJ and seeing how undisturbed he seemed by all the chaos around him). He half-fell out of his chair and stumbled over to where Daisy and Mario were checking Peach and Starlow for injuries. "Hey, there anything I can do?" He asked Mario.  
Mario waved his hand (wafting the stink of Wario's breath away from him) and replied, "I got this, Wario. Why don't you, uh, go punch Fawful for me?" Mario was only half serious, but Wario assumed he was being completely serious-after all, Fawful was the one who'd caused all this madness. He went up to the science teacher, who was hooking the Dark Star up to the equipment from the experiment. Wario raised his fist to give Fawful a big, fat, knuckle sandwi-  
"Now now, Wario," the creepy, screechy voice of Mr Fawful said, "didn't your mother ever tell you that violence does not solve everything?" The teacher slowly turned around...and raised what appeared to be a laser gun to Wario's face. "It does solve SOME problems, though," the teacher said, grinning.

Luigi did not get angry often, but he would soon find himself in the middle of an...unpleasant affair with the idiot who left their black and purple schoolbag lying in the middle of P-corridor. Running as fast as he was, and focused on getting as far away from the lab as possible as well as getting to the sick room, it was inevitable that Luigi would trip over it. He had just turned the corner and passed his homeroom when it happened. He caught his left foot in one of the straps and twisted his right foot as it landed on the bag, and before he knew it, Luigi was lying on the hard floor, his right ankle throbbing.   
"Ha!" A high-pitched voice laughed. "What a trip! If only you had sent me a postcard."  
Luigi groaned as he sat up. He tried to move his right foot but it was too painful. The owner of the voice (and the offending schoolbag) did nothing to help Luigi. He just slammed a nearby locker door shut, grabbed the bag (which bumped Luigi's foot, causing a new wave of pain to surge through it) and went on his way down the corridor. Luigi was left there; whenever he tried to get up, his foot hurt too much and he sat back down. 

"Boss!" A deep voice called from the doorway. Fawful turned, putting the laser gun down. The large frame of Midbus, the lab assistant, stood in the doorway.   
"Midbus! You are being very late!" Fawful screeched at him. "Indeed, you have much tardiness! There will be many words between us, count on it!"   
Now what? Wario thought. Then he realised that while Fawful was scolding the tardy Midbus, the teacher's guard was down. Once again, he raised his fist, and with a sickening thwack, the teacher collapsed to the floor. Midbus stood there in shock at first, before rushing (as much as he was able, being as bulky as he was) towards Wario. 

Toadsworth could not believe the scene that was unfolding before him. How in the world could this happen? In HIS school, which he ran in a very organised manner, with little room for this sort of chaos to occur. He checked his watch. Luigi, who he assumed had gone to fetch Doctor Toadley, had been gone for far too long. He must have gotten lost, Toadsworth thought. He was a new year eight after all. But he couldn't go to find Toadley himself; he had to get to work defusing this situation before it got any more out of hand than it had gotten thus far. There were now three unconscious people in this science laboratory (which was in a terribly untidy state), one of which had been possessed by a dark entity, which had been created by the mad mind of one of the other unconscious individuals. There was also the problem of the late Mr Midbus, who it seemed had been in cahoots with the utterly mad Mr Fawful, and who was now in the middle of a nasty fistfight with a rather large and muscly student. Where to start...?

Where are you, Luigi? Mario thought. It had been about fifteen minutes since Luigi had gone to get Doctor Toadley, and Peach still hadn't woken up. Starlow hadn't woken up either, and Daisy seemed just as worried as Mario was. He somehow KNEW that something had happened to his brother, but he didn't want to leave Peach, even though Daisy was also there. Still, Luigi was his brother. And Luigi should've returned with Toadley by now...Perhaps his brother hadn't left with the intention of finding Toadley, but had simply fled in a state of panic. He couldn't blame him, and he was honestly surprised that Luigi had stayed in the lab as long as he had. That settled it for Mario. If his brother was trembling and sobbing in fear in a corner somewhere, or if something even worse had happened to him, he HAD to find and comfort his bro. Even if it meant leaving his precious Peach.


	12. First Aid Fiasco

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time passes and neither Luigi nor Doctor Toadley have shown up. The concerned Mario decides to search the school, having no idea what has happened to his brother.

"I'm going to go find Luigi," Mario said to Daisy. "You stay here with Peach and Starlow; I'll be back soon!" With that, Mario got up and navigated his way around Peach, Starlow and Daisy, the shards of a broken beaker, his classmates' backpacks and book bags, lab benches and his classmates themselves. He glanced in the direction of Wario, who was fighting with the lab assistant, but he didn't have time to help Wario. He had to find Luigi; he'd been gone for far too long.   
"Where are you going, young man?" Principal Toadsworth asked, standing in the doorway.  
"I'm going to find my brother. He might be lost or scared or something!"  
Toadsworth let Mario through, and Mario jogged down the corridor, at least until he realised that he didn't know the school's layout very well yet, end if Luigi had gotten lost, he might too. He went back to the lab, grabbed his diary (which had a school map inside the front cover) out of his red backpack, and rushed back out again.

The first place Mario decided to check was the sick room, which was where Luigi had been trying to go in the first place. Best case scenario, Luigi had simply gotten a bit lost but had made it to the sick room and was still explaining the situation to Doctor Toadley. The sick room was at the back of the school, and had a blue cross on the door. There was no sound coming from the other side of the door when Mario got there though. He opened it, but only Doctor Toadley was inside. He was unusually dressed for a doctor; he was wearing a blue robe and a blue hat with white spots on it. Mario asked him if Luigi had been there, but Toadley shook his head and said, "Has Luigi been here? No, he has not. Is he sick?"  
"No, but he was sent to find you," Mario replied. "Peach and Starlow are unconscious in the science lab! An experiment went wrong, and then...." Mario trailed off. He had no idea how to explain what had happened to Doctor Toadley.  
"Ah! I see it!" Doctor Toadley exclaimed. "They are suffering from....Darkstaritis, yes? I haven't a moment to lose!" With that Toadley and Mario left the sick room, and then Toadley set off to the science lab. At least that problem's solved, thought Mario. But if Luigi never made it here, where is he?

Luigi was still half sitting, half lying in the middle of P-Corridor, rubbing his sore foot. He had tried to stand up a few times, but his foot hurt too badly for him to manage it, even when he held on to a nearby door handle for support. He had called for help numerous times as well, but it seemed that the classrooms were soundproofed so well (or the classes were so noisy) that nobody heard him calling for help or knocking on the classroom doors. Luigi did this for fifteen minutes before he heard the sound of footsteps. Somebody was coming down the corridor! He turned his head in the direction of the noise just as Miss Britta turned the corner. "Whattaya doin' lyin' in the middle o' the floor cryin' like a baby for?" She said sternly.   
"I, er, tripped and fell," Luigi said sheepishly, rubbing his sore foot.   
"Ya coulda sent us a postcard, ya know," Miss Britta said, laughing at the joke.   
"The kid whose bag I tripped on said the same thing, Miss," Luigi mumbled.  
"What? Can't hear ya. Aw, never mind, guess I better get Toadley. Can ya get up? Can't have you sittin' in the middle of the corridor for someone ELSE ta trip over, can I?"  
"No," Luigi said, trying to stand again. Pain surged through his leg just as it had the last five times he'd tried to stand up.   
"Oh, for Pete's sake...." Miss Britta said, and she picked Luigi up and carried him down the corridor like a big, teenager-sized baby. Luigi cried out as pain shot through his foot again as Miss Britta picked him up, but Miss Britta took no notice of it. 

Mario's next stop was the library. Since it was still class time, most of the teachers would be in their classrooms, but there would be a few of them in the library, as well as some students working there. With any luck, one of them might have seen Luigi on their way there. Mario didn't expect Luigi to be in the library though. Firstly, Luigi would know that it wasn't the sick room, and secondly, even if Luigi had simply fled the lab in a state of panic with no intention to go to the sick room, the library would be the last place Luigi would flee to after the events of the previous afternoon (Mario had explained what had happened during his trip to the library the previous day; he had instantly regretted if as it had left Luigi absolutely terrified). 

Half of the lights in the library were off when Mario got there, despite the fact that there were quite a few kids studying there. Mario walked up to the counter where Koopa Krag the librarian was. He was standing behind the counter and reading a book just like he had been yesterday. Mario asked him if he'd seen Luigi but Koopa Krag didn't even look up from his book. He tried again but it was no use (the old librarian had actually fallen asleep while reading; this happened a couple of times each day but since students hardly ever borrowed books from the library, almost nobody knew this). Mario asked some of the students who were sitting around the tables or working on the computers, but they either ignored him or said that they hadn't seen Luigi. Mario was just about to leave when all of a sudden somebody in the darkest corner of the library screeched, "Vill everyone just be QUIET for five minutes?! I cannot vork vith all this noise!" It's not THAT noisy in here, Mario thought, as he walked over to the screechy student, who Mario hadn't noticed until now. He was wearing a black shirt with purple pants and a purple jacket with a spiky collar. The boy's hair was black and spiky, and his eyes seemed to...glow in the darkness of the corner where he was sitting. The only things on the table were one of the library's dusty old books, a notebook open to a page covered in untidy, spiky handwriting, and a black pen. A black and purple schoolbag was sitting on the floor next to the boy's chair, but it looked almost empty. Mario was a bit nervous about asking this kid; he seemed like the sort of kid you should probably just leave alone. Besides, nobody else had seen Luigi, so what were the chances that this kid had seen him?

"Why didn't ya tell me all that in the first place?!" Miss Britta asked Luigi. They were outside the sick room-the EMPTY sick room, that is. Doctor Toadley hadn't been inside when Miss Britta had arrived, still carrying Luigi. Luigi had figured that Principal Toadsworth had sent someone else to get Toadley since he hadn't returned. Luigi had then explained what had happened to Peach and Starlow, and how he'd gotten lost on the way to this very room and tripped over some kid's bag. Miss Britta sighed and said, "I ain't lugging ya back to the lab after all that. I'll plonk ya down on the bed in there and tell Toadley to get up here." Miss Britta then proceeded to do just that; she opened the door, awkwardly holding Luigi one-handed while she did so, and unceremoniously dumped him on the old wooden bed in the sick room. It creaked ominously as he fell onto it. Miss Britta turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Mario had asked about Luigi at the front desk, in the classrooms in P-Corridor, and in the music room, but nobody had seen him. He decided to head back to the science lab; maybe Luigi had gone back there rather looking for the sick room any longer then he had. That being said, Mario still couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened to Luigi after leaving the lab. Therefore, Mario was not surprised to find that Luigi was not in the lab. However, he WAS surprised to find his homegroup teacher, Miss Britta, there. She was talking to Doctor Toadley-and Mario heard her saying something about Luigi!   
"What did you say?" Mario asked them. "You found Luigi?"  
"Yeah, one minute the kid was tearin' down the corridor like he was busting out of jail, the next minute he'd taken a spill an' twisted his ankle or somethin'," Miss Britta replied. "Carried him all the way to the sick room, I did."  
Mario was already running down the corridor by the time Miss Britta finished her sentence.


	13. Fight and Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Principal Toadsworth attempts to control the situation in the lab, while Mario is forced to run for his life (or close enough, already).

Mario tore through the corridors of Mushroom High like he was going for gold at the Olympics. His only thoughts were of concern for his one and only brother. He was clutching his diary, open to the page with the school map on it, and only half paying attention to his surroundings. During his frantic race through the school, the bell rang for the start of recess, and students began to file out of their classrooms and flood the corridors. Mario pushed and shoved and elbowed and yelled his way through the torrent of students filling the corridors and getting in his way. Many of the students yelled after him. Mario was unfortunate enough to elbow Bowser in the ribs on his way past the IT help desk (Bowser's laptop wasn't working properly-probably because he had a habit of bashing it and even punching the screen when it wouldn't connect to the internet or some similar minor issue-and he was yelling at the IT guy to "hurry up and FIX IT ALREADY!"). Bowser turned his head, yelled, "HEY! I'll GET you for that!" and started running after Mario. Needless to say, the poor, shy IT guy was very relieved. Mario, however, was anything but.

Meanwhile, back in the lab, Principal Toadsworth was trying his hardest to defuse the chaos around him. His first order of business was to try to break up the fight between Wario and Midbus before either of them got hurt. He knew it was unsafe for him to intervene directly, and yelling at them to stop had done absolutely no good whatsoever. He decided that the first step to stopping the fight was to make sure the two big, angry combatants didn't endanger anyone else, so he asked Yoshi to help him turn a nearby lab bench around, so that it would act as a barrier between the fighters and the rest of the class. Neither Wario nor Midbus noticed this, or anything else going on around the room, as they were now wrestling on the floor. Midbus was bigger and heavier then Wario, but he was less fit than Wario, and Wario's movements were slightly faster, so it didn't look like the fight was going to end anytime soon unless something else was done about it. But what?

If Mario had been running fast before, he was running like a professional marathon runner who was escaping from prison with his trousers on fire now that he had Bowser bearing down on him like a massive Bob-omb intent on seeking him out and blowing him to smithereens. At least the sea of students parted quickly when they saw Bowser coming towards them. Mario's palms were sweaty and his legs were sore, but adrenaline helped him continue on towards the sick room. He was barely focusing on the map, and was going by the memory of his first trip to the sick room. He narrowly avoided stepping on a banana peel that someone had dropped on the ground-but Bowser didn't. The big bully stepped on it, and the peel slid on the hard floor, causing him to slip and crash sideways into a wall of metal lockers with an enormous crash. Bowser half yelled, half growled loudly and angrily, and Mario seized his chance to lose himself in the crowd and hopefully escape Bowser's clutches. "Aaaarrrggghhhh! This isn't the end of this, Red Guy!" Bowser yelled after Mario.

Principal Toadsworth scanned his surroundings for something he could use to stop both Wario and Midbus fighting. But what was he going to find in a science lab, of all places? He didn't want to hurt them, especially given the legal complications that would ensue if he did. Finally he spied a tap and a beaker that had been left out on the bench (that had somehow survived the chaos). Maybe some cold water would bring them to their senses. He hurried over to the tap, grabbing the beaker on the way, and filled it with water. He walked over to the bench that was acting as a barrier between the fight and everyone else. He leant as far across the bench as possible, holding out the beaker, and threw his arm forward, causing the cold water to fly out of the beaker and onto Wario and Midbus. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have any effect on them. Well, now what was he supposed to do? Was his only choice to wait for them to cool down on their own? 

Finally, after what seemed like an endless marathon, Mario spied the big blue cross on the front of the sick room door. He had never been so glad to see a door until he saw that bright blue cross. He grabbed the handle and barged into the room, making Luigi jump in bed and scream. Mario ran up to the bed and hugged his brother hard. He had been so worried about him, especially when Miss Britta had said that he was hurt. Luigi hugged him back, sobbing into Mario's red shirt. He had been scared too-scared for Mario, stuck in the lab with all that craziness going on, and scared for himself when he'd tripped and hurt his ankle so badly that he hadn't been able to stand up, and he'd feared that Fawful or zombie Peach might come for him next. But now the brothers were together, and everything would be fine. Together, Mario and Luigi were ten times stronger, smarter and braver than they were separately.

"Wh...wh...what...what'ssss going....on?" Starlow said faintly, her voice almost a whisper, as she opened her eyes. Her neck was sore and she felt as heavy as a pile of bricks. Someone's jacket was under her head so it wasn't on the floor, and Daisy and Doctor Toadley were kneeling beside her. They both looked relieved when she spoke. "Finally!" Daisy cried. "I thought you were never gonna wake up."   
"Indeed, the Darkstaritis, it is a dire affliction indeed, and yet you seem to have recovered, quite miraculously at that!" Doctor Toadley exclaimed.   
"Ugh..." Starlow groaned as she moved her arms into position to try and sit up. It took all her strength, but she managed to sit up so that she was leaning against the wall. "What...happened?" She asked. Then her eyes fell to the still-unconscious Peach. Stsrlow gasped. She remembered the Dark Star clamping onto Peach, and her desperately trying to pull it off, and Peach trying to strangle her. "I-Is Peach okay?!" She asked, her voice suddenly frantic.   
"Will Peach, too, make a full and miraculous recovery from the shadowy vice of Darkstaritis?" Doctor Toadley asked. "I simply do not know. With the power of the great and miraculous Miracle Cures, maybe, but...alas, it is no good, for they are naught but legend at this point. Ah, would that we had the power of the Star Sprites at our disposal! Now THAT, I say, would work as well as any Miracle Cure!" 

The Star Sprites...Principal Toadsworth had mentioned something about that earlier...Starlow recalled how her Star from the experiment had turned yellow, and how the Dark Star had seemed to weaken at its touch. But where WAS her yellow star? She asked Daisy, but she had no idea. It couldn't be too far away, thought Starlow. She scanned the room for its yellow glow, but couldn't see it. Then suddenly, she FELT something, in her mind. A tickle in her mind, something...responding to her search. Could it be...her star?? Starlow focused on the strange feeling. She tried calling in her mind: Come on, star, come to me. Come to me, Star, come to me, come to me, COME ON! And suddenly, there it was. Between the forest of people and table and chair legs she saw a yellow light. Starlow stared at the light, focusing on it, and on bringing it to her. Slowly but surely, the light came closer. Little by little it travelled across the floor. And then it got stuck. About one and a half meters from where Starlow was sitting, the star stopped. Starlow was still too weak to drag herself over and grab it. All she could do was try and call to it with her mind. Come on, just a bit more. Come on, come on, come on, star, come and help me. HELP ME! HELP. MEEEEE!  
And at that last, most desperate of pleas, the star exploded like a glittering, golden firework.


	14. The Two Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things have finally de-escalated in the science lab. But this may just be the calm before the storm...

While all of this pandemonium had been unfolding, the Dark Star had been floating ominously in that dark corner of the laboratory, forgotten by everyone as soon as Peach and Starlow had fallen unconscious. Though the malevolent entity lacked a soul, it possessed a will strong enough to corrupt all who dared oppose it, and a mind centred on one thought: I. Need. More. POWER. All. Must. Be. DARKNESS! As the atmosphere in the room became more and more chaotic and tense as various events unfolded, the Dark Star continued to float and pulse with dark energy, siphoning it from Fawful, Midbus, and even Wario, after some point during his tussle with Midbus. The inner voice of the Dark Star was continuously repeating those phrases over and over like a mantra. It had failed to absorb the power its creator naturally possessed, but that was simply because some other strong will had been able to oppose it (how was that possible? Darkness is ABSOLUTE!). Yet, the Dark Star also sensed others, others with the potential to carry and spread its power. All that was required was an opportunity, a means of channelling that inner darkness inherent inside them. As the situation inside the science lab spiralled further out of control, the Dark Star suddenly sensed a faint pulse of darkness from somewhere in the school. A sudden burst of anger from one of those individuals the Dark Star had had on its radar. The Dark Star had its opportunity. Seconds before Starlow's star exploded, a small cloud of black mist came out of the science lab door. Not one person in the lab noticed. Not one person knew what had just been let loose in the school. Not one person comprehended the extent of the danger unleashed by that morning's experiment. 

The explosion was silent and bright, like a lightning strike. Little golden spots and sparks filled the air and surrounded the students in the wake of the explosion. And all was still. Midbus and Wario stopped wrestling on the floor, their eyes drawn by the sudden flash of golden light. They were mesmerised by the dancing specks of light falling around them. Any students who had been panicking from the chaos previously present in the room stopped. Even BJ, who had been acting completely oblivious through everything that had transpired thus far, was stunned into silence and awe. Principal Toadsworth stared with wonder. Starlow, still feeling weak and dizzy from being unconscious, took a while to process what had just happened. "I..." she said faintly, "I...Did I....My star..." The words had barely escaped her lips when a shard of the golden star flew towards her.

Starlow gasped as she realised and braced herself, a split second before the shard made contact. But there was no pain, like there would have been if the star were made of glass. Instead, the shard simply...melted into her. The spot in her chest where the star shard hit her glowed as the star shard melted into pure golden light that seeped into her. She felt warm inside, as though she'd just drank a hot chocolate on a cold winter's day. The warmth spread across her chest, then it reached her arms and legs and travelled down them in a matter of seconds. As the warmth enveloped her head (she could actually feel it in her mind!) she stopped feeling dizzy and her thoughts became less jumbled and erratic. She felt her strength returning to every part of her body as the warmth reached her hands and feet, and then began to dissipate. Starlow reached out with one arm and grasped the seat of a nearby chair. She used it to pull herself up. Holding the back of the chair, she surveyed the room.

The first thing she noticed was the remaining specks of light from the star explosion. She couldn't see any more shards of the star, though she figured they must have flown pretty far across the room judging by the sheer speed of the one that had hit her. Starlow turned her head towards the area where Wario and Midbus were. She couldn't see them clearly because of the bench that Toadsworth had put in front of them, though she could see that they were both lying on the floor. She'd been unconscious during most of their tussle, so she had no idea what had happened to them. Did they fall during her star's explosion? Or did the Dark Star hurt or possess them? She had no idea, but she figured she had better check them to make sure they were both okay. As she approached them, Principal Toadsworth finally came out of his dazed stupor and said, "Be careful, Starlow. They were engaged in a nasty fight while you were out." Despite his warning, he made no move to stop her as she bent over them. Upon close inspection, she saw that they both had some rather recent-looking injuries. Both had a few bruises and scrapes, and Wario had a black eye. Though neither of them were unconscious, they both seemed to be a bit out of it. Starlow held out a hand to Wario, and after a few seconds, he realised she was there and took it. Helping him up was difficult given how big and heavy he was, but eventually he was standing up. "What...happened?" He asked her. "Ugh...I feel like I've been hit by a monster truck," he added.  
"Well, apparently you were fighting with Mr Midbus," Starlow said. "Then my star kinda exploded and..." She gestured to what was left of the specks of light still dancing in the middle of the room.   
"Whoa, whoa, what?" Wario questioned, looking very confused. "Fighting? I don't remember fighting anybody. Mr Midbus wasn't even HERE at the start of...at the start...the start of the..." he trailed off, looking very confused.  
"The science lesson?" Starlow prompted him. Did he have no memory whatsoever of what happened?  
"The...oh yeeeaahh, the science lesson!" Wario replied, the confused look suddenly gone from his face. "Whoa, something must've gone REALLY wrong. I don't even know what experiment we were doing."   
"You mean to say you have no recollection of anything that has happened this morning?" Toadsworth interrupted.  
"Nope," Wario replied. "I mean, I was here for science class, but I don't remember what we were doing or what Mr Fawful was teaching us about."  
At the mention of Fawful's name, Toadsworth turned his head towards the unconscious science teacher. Starlow looked in the same direction and was shocked all over again.   
"What in the world happened to Mr Fawful?!" She said in a high-pitched voice. She didn't care for Mr Fawful after the way he'd reacted to Peach's possession by the Dark Star earlier, but seeing him lying on the floor unconscious made her wonder just how much she'd missed while she had been out.  
"It seems he intended to use the laboratory equipment to further some...nefarious purpose," Principal Toadsworth mused. "That...and Peach's natural affinity with star power."  
At that, memories of fighting off the possessed Peach flooded Starlow's mind. She turned to the corner where Peach was still lying, watched over by Daisy and Doctor Toadley. No, she wasn't unconscious anymore-her eyes were open. She was awake, but apparently too weak to sit up. Starlow left Wario and Midbus to Toadsworth and rushed to Peach's side. 

"Is it a miracle? Yes, indeed it is!" Doctor Toadley exclaimed when Starlow asked if Peach was alright. "It seems that the star piece that fell on her reversed any negative effects of the Darkstaritis!"   
"Wait, a piece of my star fell on Peach and cured her?" Starlow asked.  
"Cured her? Yes, cure her it did," Toadley replied, "and in a rather glorious glowing fashion, too."  
"So she'll recover fully?" Starlow asked.  
"Well, I have never seen a case of Darkstaritis as serious as that with which Peach was afflicted, but I do believe she shall make a full recovery in time," Toadley replied.   
Starlow sighed with relief. Finally, it seemed as though things were returning to normal. Well, sort of. Fawful was still unconscious, the lab was a huge mess and most of Starlow's classmates were staring around completely confused, having apparently lost their memories of the whole Dark Star incident and the resulting chaos just as Wario had. Starlow couldn't even begin to imagine how Principal Toadsworth was going to explain this mess to...whoever he was inevitably going to have to explain it to. And-

"Ummm....people?" Daisy spoke up, addressing the room in general. "We might have a kinda major problem."  
Principal Toadsworth, who was using the first aid kit that was usually kept in the science lab to address Wario and Midbus's various injuries, looked up at Daisy and said, "Yes, what is it?"  
"Uhhh, so you know that thing that got stuck to Peach and made her act all weird?"  
"You mean the Dark Star?" Toadsworth replied.  
"Uh, yeah. About that, it's...it's GONE. As in, zero trace of it anywhere in here."

 

Author's Note: Well, I was GOING to use my free time this afternoon to work on my chemistry assignment, but then my laptop refused to cooperate and I couldn't get it to load no matter what I did, and since I couldn't work on my Google Doc on my iPad, there was NOTHING I could do about it! #grrrrr #technology #typical :( So I wrote this chapter instead. So I guess thank my wonky laptop for this update 🙃   
Also, for those of you on QuoteV (or those of you who are reading this on Wattpad but also use QuoteV) should I change my QuoteV username to SinewaveSanctuary (or some variation like Sinewave or Metallucia/Sinewave, or feel free to suggest other ideas) to be consistent across both sites? Please tell me if changing it at this point would be too confusing.   
Yours mathematically, Sinewave


	15. Lockdown!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mushroom High goes into lockdown as 1U-P try to piece together what even just happened.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. "Attention all students and faculty! There has been a serious incident in the school's Science wing, resulting in the school going into lockdown. Please remain calm, stay where you are and initiate lockdown procedures. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is NOT a drill. The school will remain under lockdown conditions until you hear the all-clear announcement." BEEP. BEEP BEEP. "Attention all students and faculty! There has been a serious incident in the Science wing..."

The announcement rang through every hallway and classroom in Mushroom High, repeating over and over. Lights went out, blinds were closed, doors were locked and students hid under desks. Class 1U-P followed the lockdown procedures as best they could given the state that the lab was in. Dr Toadley continued to attend to Fawful, Wario and Midbus while everyone else moved the benches and chairs around so they could hide under them. Since Fawful was in no state to direct the class (for multiple reasons), Toadsworth directed the situation. 

Peach, Daisy and Starlow were all huddled together under a bench in one of the front corners. Despite the fact that Toadsworth had told everyone to stay quiet, whispered conversations could be heard all around the room. The three girls were having one such conversation. "Do you think the Star's still in the school somewhere?" Peach whispered to the other two.  
"It could be, but then, it could NOT be," replied Daisy. "It's bad news either way."  
"What if it got shut in during the lockdown?" Peach asked. "In that case, everyone would have to stay in their classrooms until someone finds out where it is."  
"What kind of person would they even call in to find it?" Daisy asked. "Somehow I doubt the police could just bust in and arrest it."  
They were silent for a few seconds, before Starlow tentatively asked, "Would the walls and doors of the school even be enough to contain it? I mean, the lab door was open so it could just go out, no problem, but...what if it can somehow go THROUGH walls, or under doors?"  
"So...it could be literally anywhere?" Daisy asked.   
"Wait...Actually...I...I think it's still in the school somewhere," Peach said. "I don't know how, I can just FEEL it. I don't think I'd be able to chase it down, but I know it's still close by-close enough that it has to still be in Mushroom High."  
"Are you sure?" Starlow replied.  
Peach tried to use her mind to sense the Dark Star, shuddering as she recalled how she'd felt when she'd mentally pushed against it when it had possessed her. And yes, she could feel some sort of vibration in her mind, as if it had brushed up against the Star.   
"I'm positive," she affirmed. "It's still here, and I think it's going to stay here until it gets whatever it wants."  
"But what, exactly, does it want?" Starlow asked.  
"Probably nothing good," replied Daisy. 

In the sick room, Mario sat on the end of the bed that Luigi was lying on. The door was closed and the lights were off, and they were alone. The two brothers had just finished explaining what had happened to each of them after Luigi had left the lab to get Dr Toadley. Mario had called their parents on his mobile, and they were on their way. Mario and Luigi had heard the lockdown announcement and figured it was related to the Dark Star, however they had no idea that the Dark Star was no longer confined in the lab. Their best guess as to why the school was being locked down now was to keep Fawful inside the building until the police could get there. But what about everyone else in the lab? Mario thought. What about...Peach???

None of the other classes in the school had any knowledge whatsoever regarding the events that had transpired that morning (in fact, there weren't any other science classes scheduled during the first period on Tuesday, so the whole Science wing was completely empty except for class 1U-P). They had no idea why the school was under lockdown. They had no idea that an evil entity was lurking in the hallways and seeping under doors in the form of sinister, black mist. What's more, even most of the members of 1U-P were completely oblivious, the explosion from Starlow's Star having erased their memories of that morning from their minds, as if it had been to purge the world of every possible trace of the Dark Star-even mere memories of it. Starlow, Peach and Daisy still remembered (Peach and Starlow because they'd been directly involved with the Dark Star, and Daisy, they guessed, because of either her close proximity to those two or her close friendship with them). Toadsworth and Toadley also retained their memories. Toadsworth had his theory about why that was, but didn't share it. Mario and Luigi were the last of the people who kept their memories because they weren't in the lab when the star exploded and the memories were erased. The rest of 1U-P were trying to piece together what had happened during class that morning, and why the lab was in such a huge mess.Through creating and discussing various theories in whispered conversations across the lab, the class came to a general consensus: Mr Fawful must've accidentally caused a serious gas leak while demonstrating an experiment, which had caused everyone to panic as they tried to get away. That panic was what caused the lab to get messed up. Fawful, Wario and Midbus had been knocked out as they had been so close to the leak. Their injuries must have been caused by them panicking, or from bumping their heads on the edge of the bench as they fell. The gas also caused everyone to feel strange and had affected their minds (and caused mild amnesia) due to how long they'd been exposed to it. This also explained why Dr Toadley was present. The school had been locked down in order to prevent the gas from spreading to other areas of the building. 

Peach, Daisy and Starlow knew they'd all sound completely crazy if they tried to explain what had really happened to the rest of the class. They'd all probably think the girls were hallucinating from the gas; the more the rest of the class discussed the gas leak theory end how it explained everything, they more convinced the seemed to become that that was what had happened, even though nobody had any memories of it (they just took that as further proof of the theory). In fact, Toadsworth even told the girls to keep quiet about the Dark Star, and to go along with the gas leak explanation. "We don't want to cause the entire school to panic," he said.  
"But if it's still around, it's not safe to be here," Starlow replied.   
"Unfortunately there's nobody we can tell about this who would take it seriously, especially with everyone's memories wiped," Toadsworth replied gravely. "And since there's no real gas leak at all, we can't use that as a reason to justify the continuation of the lockdown or shutdown of the school. Besides...with your and Peach's power, we should be able to monitor it. You can sense the Dark Star is still here, can't you, Peach?"  
"Y-yes, but...what power? And why can I sense it?" Peach asked.  
"Probably because you got possessed by it," Daisy said. "But what about Starlow? Does her power have something to do with how her experiment made a good Star instead of a Dark Star?"  
"But why would MY experiment even make a Dark Star in the first place?" Peach asked, tears filling her eyes. "I'm not...I'm not...I'm not evil! I didn't want this to happen!" She broke down in tears and put her head in her hands.   
Starlow and Daisy each put an arm around their friend. "Nobody said you were, or that you did, Peach," Daisy said.   
"And..." Starlow said, thinking of something else to add that would reassure Peach. "And...I don't know why, but I seem to be able to, like, cancel out the Dark Star's power, somehow. So if anything else happens, I'll try and fix it. Somehow."  
They continued to support Peach until she stopped crying. Toadsworth looked thoughtful throughout all this. When it finally seemed like an appropriate time to speak, he said, "I believe we can do something about the Dark Star using your...natural affinities, shall we say. Suffice to say that I have some idea as to where they derive from. However, this is neither the time nor the place to discuss it. You three shall meet me in my office....hmmm...Thursday afternoon. I'll explain things then."  
"But we don't know what the Dark Star's going to do, or if it'll even stay in the school. How can we plan ANYTHING?" Daisy asked.  
"If it was going to leave the school, it would've left by now, right?" Starlow replied.   
"Indeed," Toadsworth said. "And I have reason to believe it will remain here. Now, the school will be closed tomorrow-to deal with the supposed "gas leak"-but it will resume on Thursday. You three will meet me in my office after lunch so we can figure out how to deal with the Dark Star."  
"But...you can't expect US to be able to get rid of the Dark Star!" Peach exclaimed. "We're just three girls, even if we do have 'affinities'."  
"Yeah...and I don't even HAVE any of those," Daisy added.  
The girls looked glum as they contemplated the prospect of facing the Dark Star. Then Starlow suddenly exclaimed, "Wait! What about people who weren't in the lab when my star exploded?"  
"What do you mean?" Toadsworth asked. "Nobody outside the lab could've known anything about the situation in here anyway. And we can't tell anyone else what really happened."  
"Well no, but, what about people who WERE in the lab but left before the explosion?"  
"Oh!" Peach exclaimed, realising what Starlow meant. "Those two boys! Mario and, er...Louie?"  
"Luigi, I think his name was Luigi," Daisy corrected her. "But yeah, they should still remember the Dark Star. If you really think we can help fix this, we might as well recruit them too, right?"  
"Hmmm...very well," Toadsworth said. "I'll have them meet us on Thursday as well. We'll need as many heads as we can get working on a plan to get rid of that Star."

Shortly after the conclusion of that discussion, the all-clear announcement was given and the lockdown ended. Due to the "serious gas leak", everyone was sent home early. Mario and Luigi's parents drove them straight to the hospital to get Luigi's foot checked out. Fortunately, there weren't any broken bones, though he had twisted his ankle quite badly and it was wrapped in a cast to protect it in case he fell or hurt it while it was healing. Mario was relieved to hear this; he's thought Luigi's foot was broken for sure given how much pain his brother appeared to be in (then again, Luigi did have a habit of overreacting to pain as well as things that scared him). Luigi spent the next day on his bed, mainly trying to sleep since he hadn't gotten much the night before. His dreams were filled with bats, the Dark Star and memories of what had happened in the lab. Mario wished he could help his bro, but the most he could do was to check on him throughout the day.

As Principal Toadsworth had said to Peach, Daisy and Starlow during the lockdown, school was back in session on Thursday. Instead of homegroup, the day was to begin with a whole-school assembly in the gym. Mario and Luigi (who was walking with crutches) walked to the gym together. Due to Luigi being slower, they were at the back of the massive crowd of students. Even so, they found the crowd to be extremely noisy. Of course the entire student body of Mushroom High was discussing the events that led to the lockdown and closure of the school on Tuesday.  
"It's like the whole school has gone crazy," Mario said.  
"You don't say," Luigi replied, but he wasn't looking at Mario. He was looking in the direction of the music room, which the brothers were about to pass. Two students were standing next to the music room door, having what appeared to be a very heated argument, and as they got closer Mario recognised both of them. The boy wearing a white shirt, green shorts and a red backpack was their classmate and Luigi's friend Yoshi. The second student was much bigger, much tougher and MUCH angrier. Even if he hadn't remembered that bright orange and green hair (and who could possibly forget seeing THAT?) Mario would recognise that nasty scowl anywhere. It was Bowser. The same Bowser who had stolen his lunch on Monday, and mercilessly chased him all over the school on Tuesday just for bumping into him. Yes, THAT Bowser. 

Luigi tried to hide behind Mario (his crutches meant that this proved ineffective, however) as Mario took a few steps closer to try to figure out what was going on. Mario was still scared of Bowser-who wouldn't be?-but he didn't want their classmate, or rather their friend, to get hurt by that bully. What in the world could Yoshi have done to offend Bowser? Probably not much, if Mario's experience was anything to go by.

"A gas leak?" Bowser said, his face close to Yoshi's. "Yeah, right. I don't believe that for a SECOND! You're gonna tell me what really happened there. Or ELSE."  
Yoshi trembled. "I-I-I s-swear, that's what happened! I d-don't know anything else. Didn't your b-b-brother tell you? He's in our cl-"  
"DON'T you bring Junior into this!" Bowser interrupted Yoshi. "I'm asking YOU, you little maggot! What. Happened. Tuesday. MORNING?"

Mario got more and more mad the longer Bowser's brutal interrogation continued. He whispered to his bro, "Luigi, go ahead without me, okay? I'm gonna go help Yoshi."  
Luigi went pale. "A-are you crazy?" He replied. "Bowser's gonna mash you like a potato!"  
"Yeah, but if I don't help, Yoshi's gonna get mashed like a potato. And I don't wanna just stand around and not do anything!"   
Luigi, seeing the determined look on Mario's face, knew there was no reasoning with him. "O-okay..." He said. "But be careful!" And then Luigi rushed back into the crowd (as fast as he was able, anyway). Mario hung back until Luigi had gone round the next corner with the rest of the students, before he slowly approached the bully. Gee, maybe I really AM crazy, he thought as he was suddenly alone in the corridor (except for bully and victim). If he really does 'mash me like a potato' there's nobody around who can help me. He already hates my guts too, so I bet he's already looking for an opportunity to do just that. And I'm walking right into one-willingly.


End file.
